Forbidden Land – CH 033

After finishing his IV drip in the afternoon, Chen Rong accompanied him to get something to eat. Afterwards, he returned to his dorm, wearing heavy clothes, and lay in a chair browsing the web.

A knock on the door prompted Zhang Chao to open it. It was Lin Yi’ang.

Lin Yi’ang slapped Zhang Chao hard on the shoulder, almost knocking him over, and laughed, “Sir, are you sick?”

Zhang Chao retorted, “Have you lost your mind?!”

Lin Yi’ang chuckled, “Seeing that you’re sick and can’t do anything reckless, I’m a little happy.”

Zhang Chao said, “Get the hell out of here! I knew I shouldn’t have opened the door.”

Lin Yi’ang said, “What, the boss came to check on you, and you’re making a scene? Looking for a beating?”

Zhang Chao said, “Get to the point, or get lost!”

Lin Yi’ang casually walked around, smiling, and said, “I saw Chen Rong having a meal with you. Oh my, how sweet! You’re sick and still have a woman with you, and a PhD student at that!”

Zhang Chao said, “Are you jealous for yourself or for your cousin?”

Lin Yi’ang became serious and said, “No, you and Chen Rong should focus on your relationship; forget about Bai Qiu.”

Zhang Chao asked curiously, “What do you mean by that?”

Lin Yi’ang lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then said, “You know Bai Qiu’s current situation. I’m thinking of you, and I’m telling the truth.”

Zhang Chao punched him, cursing, “Don’t talk nonsense! If Bai Qiu heard this, who knows what she’d think!”

Lin Yi’ang smiled, said nothing, walked to his computer, looked at the webpage, and said, “You’re browsing 19th Floor?”

The 19th Floor forum was the most famous forum in Hangzhou, always very popular, discussing Hangzhou news and anecdotes.

Zhang Chao said, “I’m not like you, always watching ‘American blockbusters.'” (American blockbusters ^{American Dapian}: naturally referring to those films with the initials.) ^A-pian=porn

Lin Yi’ang smiled, casually clicked the mouse, opened a forum section, glanced at it, and said, “Hey, ‘The Weird Kid from Hangzhou,’ that title’s pretty damn ‘sexy,’ let me take a look.”

He opened the post, which was from the Hangzhou news program “1818 Golden Eye,” a news report from last night. It said a reader reported that while driving on Gudun Road in the western part of the city (just outside Zijingang), he saw a Mercedes speeding towards him. He noticed that the driver’s seat was empty. When the Mercedes passed his car, he noticed that there was someone in the driver’s seat, but a child was driving. This was clearly a serious violation of traffic laws, so he specifically noted the license plate number and sent it to the reporter.

The reporter went to the traffic police station about the incident. The police retrieved surveillance photos from the electronic surveillance camera, including one taken from the side of the car, with the camera lens pointed directly at the driver’s seat. This photo was posted below the post.

The car was traveling at high speed, and the scenery in the photo was elongated. Sure enough, a child was sitting in the driver’s seat, their head lower than the steering wheel, only half of their head visible above the door. The child appeared to have very long hair, and their nose and mouth protruded like a gorilla’s. The hand gripping the steering wheel was also dark and dirty.

The traffic police contacted the owners of the Mercedes, a couple. They said they didn’t have any children and didn’t know whose child was in the photo. They had parked the car outside their residential area that night, and it was gone the next day. They later contacted their insurance company, and through satellite navigation, they found it about 3 kilometers away on the roadside south of Zijingang. A significant amount of fuel had been used from the tank, and they had already reported the incident to the police.

The comments below the post were all questioning whether the couple was lying. Some said the photo was so blurry that the car was going over 120 km/h, a serious traffic violation. Others complained that people driving Mercedes could commit traffic violations, while those driving beat-up cars got tickets all the time.

Lin Yi’ang, after reading the post, couldn’t help but feel indignant: “These rich kids, I wish I could just run them over with a car and kill them to save them from harming the public.”

Zhang Chao, hearing that the post was interesting, couldn’t help but take a look. After reading the post and then looking at the photo, he initially didn’t think much of it, but after staring at the photo for a few seconds, he suddenly exclaimed, “This kid… I think I’ve seen him before!”

Lin Yi’ang scoffed, “You’ve seen him before? The photo is so bad, and you still recognize him? Do those families have some deep-seated grudge against you? Otherwise, how could you recognize him even if he were ashes?”

Zhang Chao said he’d seen him before because the child in the photo looked somewhat like that thing less than a meter tall that appeared yesterday on the first floor of the School of Medicine when the wind blew through the fire extinguisher box and the glass rotated.

He stared intently at the child in the photo. Although the photo was blurry, staring at it gave one a chill.

This child… the more he looked, the less human he seemed!

After flipping through a few pages of replies, sure enough, someone said the child didn’t look human, covered in “hair.”

Looking more closely at the child’s face and hands, the long hair on his face didn’t seem to grow from the top of his head but rather directly onto his face. The photo was taken from the side, and it was very clear that his mouth and nose protruded, somewhat like a dog, somewhat like a gorilla—in short, not human. And the hand gripping the steering wheel looked even more blurry in the photo, a dark, indistinct mass. It seemed to have “hair” growing on it!

The more he looked, the more uneasy he felt.

Why did it seem a bit like that thing on the fire extinguisher glass from yesterday?

However, Zhang Chao didn’t plan to tell Lin Yi’ang about this. Lin Yi’ang didn’t even believe the woman in ancient costume he mentioned, let alone anything else.

He could only joke, “These rich kids, with parents who don’t know how to discipline them, it’s better if they get into an accident sooner rather than later so they don’t hit innocent people.”

Lin Yi’ang patted him on the shoulder and said, “Take good care of yourself. I’m leaving now. Get well soon, brother.” With that, he left.

Zhang Chao remained alone in the dormitory, continuing to read the post. The post said the car was driven on Gudun Road outside Zijingang, and that it finally stopped south of Zijingang.

Why was it such a coincidence?

He scrolled through all the replies again. Most people were discussing how rich people didn’t educate their children, and it would be best if they got into an accident. But a few pages later, he suddenly saw a reply, whether the person was joking or serious, saying, “This isn’t a person; it’s a mountain demon. I’ve seen them; they exist in the wilderness.”

What was a mountain demon? Could it be the mountain spirit Chen Rong mentioned?

Zhang Chao suddenly remembered that Chen Rong had also mentioned rumors about mountain spirits, saying that they were covered in “hair,” and most were afraid of people, though some were not. Some mountain spirits even possessed magic, capable of creating “ghost walls” to trap people walking on mountain paths at night.

Could these rural stories be true?

He couldn’t resist thinking about it.